Gardai ‘not told that child retracted abuse claims’

Social workers failed to inform police that a child had withdrawn accusations that he was sexually abused by his parents from the age of six, a jury has been told.

The trial of the parents has previously heard that the boy told a social worker in February 2015 that the sexual abuse allegations, which include claims he was raped with a poker and forced to have sex with his mother, were “not real.”

Colman Cody, the defending senior counsel, used his closing speech to tell jurors that details of the retractions only came to the notice of gardai and defence lawyers after a barrister came across them while going through the files of the child protection agency Tusla.

The accused had faced 82 counts but…

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